Jose Mourinho appears to have lost his midas touch in recent years but he left an indelible mark on Italian football during his spell at Internazionale. Their triumph in the 2010 final - as part of a memorable treble - in his second season at the helm was inspired by a strong defence, with goalkeeper Julio Cesar recording the highest score of any Inter player to date.

13,078

10,002

#5

14,800

Losing finalists in 2002, Leverkusen’s exploits that year set a high water mark for the club’s players. Their success looks to have been driven from midfield where Bernd Schneider’s creativity both complemented and narrowly eclipsed the goalscoring prowess of fellow German legend Michael Ballack. Both players were allowed to venture forward thanks to the steely presence of captain Carsten Ramelow in front of the defence.

#7

12,696

13 DEC 2018

Dortmund

#3

#3

18,721

E Cavani

11 MAY 2017

#3

23 NOV 2006

R Firmino

25 MAY 1995

PSG

27 MAY 2018

Diego Simeone has brought a much-needed consistency to Atletico’s European performances that has seen their current side eclipse their predecessors in the Champions League. World Cup winner Antoine Griezmann steals more headlines, but his team-mate Koke - heralded by the legendary Xavi as “a footballer of the present and the future” - edges him out as Atleti’s top performer.

25 MAY 1995

16 MAY 2002

4 APR 2002

23 NOV 2006

The undisputed giants of German football have three legends within a whisker of each other in their all-time rankings. Two of their current generation of stars - the indefatigable Thomas Muller and the prolific Robert Lewandowski - are separated by Oliver Kahn: the fierce shot-shopper whose heroics in a penalty shoot-out saw them claim the 2001 Champions League.

12 DEC 2002

M Salah

Juventus may have the upper hand at the moment, but Milan’s collective achievements in the Champions League still rank above those of the Turin side. Their early dominance of the competition saw Sebastiano Rossi and Paolo Maldini register the club’s highest scores before Kaka inspired them to victory in their third final in five seasons - along with revenge on the Liverpool side who had thwarted them in Istanbul two years before.

13,345

S Mane

9,227

Liverpool

Barcelona

15,017

Thierry Henry was one of the stars of Arsenal’s legendary “Invincibles” in the 2003/04 season and this coincided with his peak performance for the Gunners in Europe. His team-mate Robert Pires also recorded his highest score following their run to the quarter-finals in 2004, in which Henry was involved in 10 of his side’s goals.

V Valdes

16,930

#3

15,136

10,227

Liverpool

A Del Piero

#5

#1

11 MAY 2017

Atletico Madrid

Fernandinho

6 APR 2006

24 MAY 2007

#1

7 DEC 2017

16,683

#3

12,256

#3

12 DEC 2002

#1

10,227

26,226

R Keane

27 MAY 2004

#5

#2

13,938

#2

Sterling

TOP CLUBS AND THEIR TOP PLAYERS

Defender

#6

#2

Ronaldo signed off his Real Madrid career on an unquestionable high last summer, having delivered three successive Champions League trophies and recording the best ever score in our rankings. His legendary predecessor Raul held the previous record for Los Blancos after also securing three winner’s medals, albeit over a five-year period.

Chelsea

D Drogba

G Higuain

A Moller

#1

#3

How the scoring system works

100
0
0

#2

Top players
by nation

All time
Top 10

11 APR 2002

by club

Goal scored by team*
Clean sheet
Only 1 goal conceded

Midfielder

?

Z Ibrahimovic

#1

Back

Top 10
All time

Top 10
Future stars

50
200
100

23 NOV 2017

12,393

#2

#2

R Lewandowski

All time
Top 10

PSG have yet to eclipse the cumulative achievements of Lyon in the Champions League, with Les Gones’ mid-2000s vintage in particular having set the standard for French football. Inspired by set piece specialist Juninho, they were a regular feature in the latter stages of the competition and claimed some noticeable scalps along the way.

Top 10
Future stars

Play Video

Players are awarded points for each match as follows :
1 point per minute played (up to a maximum of 90)
100 points for a win and 50 points for a draw**
200 points for scoring a goal
The following points are also awarded based on player position:

28 APR 1994

#1

S Klos

23 MAY 2010

L Messi

#1

14 APR 2011

D Deschamps

G Higuain

#5

9,714

27 MAY 2018

Liverpool

Play Video

D Beckham

#7

Liverpool

15,246

8 APR 2004

10 APR 2003

#1

To mark the return of the UEFA Champions League we have developed an algorithm to answer a fundamental question about Europe’s most prestigious sporting competition: just who is the best player? Here we reveal the three highest scores ever recorded for the top-performing clubs in each major league. In the interest of fairness we’ve excluded any points earned at another club.
We’ve kept the scoring system as simple as possible: players are awarded points for appearances, wins, goals and clean sheets based on their position. To strike a balance between past and present achievements, only points earned in the last five years will count towards a player’s current score and their value decreases as you go further back in time. To reflect the difficulty of the competition’s latter stages, points earned from the Round of 16 onwards are doubled.

11,746

18,107

Firmino

Liverpool

#3

M Salah

Z Zidane

#1

#3

The exploits of Belgian legend Enzo Scifo as part of the Monaco squad that reached the semi-finals in 1994 stood as the high-water mark in the club’s Champions League history until Fernando Morientes arrived on loan a decade later. Having fallen out of favour at Real Madrid, the Spanish striker answered his critics in emphatic style by topping the scoring charts - including a goal in each leg to eliminate Real - and firing his new team all the way to the final.

B Matuidi

#1

How does the scoring system work

#4

#8

8 APR 2004

1 APR 2010

J Terry

Juventus

17,982

G Neville

#3

#2

Forward

#2

Fernandinho

#1

#2

Xavi

5 MAY 2016

Chelsea

Premier League

Chelsea

#2

15,213

B Schneider

10,002

17,495

12,519

14,190

PSG

Liverpool

16 APR 1998

#2

R Firmino

#2

S Mane

D Godin

#1

26 APR 2012

Arsenal

#1

0
300
200

#3

P Maldini

R Pires

M Salah

16 APR 1998

7 MAY 2009

G Higuain

Real Madrid

9,714

Raul

S Mane

How the scoring system works

11,746

* Up to a maximum of three
** If they feature for at least an hour
Points are doubled for the latter stages of the competition and are adjusted for previous formats proportional to the number of matches played.
The value of points reduces over time, reaching zero after five years.

La Liga

8,952

A Griezmann

#2

C Fabregas

Chelsea

10,227

7,997

19 APR 2001

Chelsea’s European success owes plenty to Frank Lampard who, along with his fellow Blues legends Didier Drogba and John Terry, peaked during their run to the semi-finals in 2009. This was the culmination of the club’s most consistently successful spell which saw them reach four semi-finals in five seasons, although Lampard would have to wait until 2012 to lift the trophy.

#2

T Henry

#5

C Ronaldo

Real Madrid

#1

Menu

Leverkusen

#2

Higuain

#3

Inter

M Salah

#4

#3

#3

S Rossi

#6

Fernandinho

11,809

?

100
0
0

7 MAY 2009

M Diarra

18,291

T Kroos

#1

PSG

With Cristiano Ronaldo yet to write the first European chapter of his Juventus career, their stars of the late 1990s dominate the club’s roll of honour. Ronaldo’s former manager at Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane, is the man he needs to eclipse: alongside fellow club legends Didier Deschamps and Alessandro Del Piero he inspired the Old Lady of Italian football to successive finals.

Milan

10,699

Bayern

12,541

#3

The Red Devils’ achievements in the Champions League still outstrip those of any other Premier League side and their legendary “Class of 92” unsurprisingly dominate their roll of honour. The score reached by David Beckham in 2002, in the wake of their incredible 1999 win, is the highest recorded by a United player.

9,205

16,930

Fabinho

Atletico

31,332

#4

16,683

12,533

R Lewandowski

15,408

7 DEC 2017

#1

Robert Lewandowski has the rare honour of featuring in the top three performers for multiple clubs, having lit up the Westfalenstadion for four seasons before joining Dortmund’s rivals Bayern. However the club’s crown belongs to goalkeeper Stefan Klos: the leading member of the squad who claimed their solitary Champions League title in 1997.

#3

Koke

Monaco

Man City

Liverpool

22 APR 1999

Man City

S Mane

M Salah

#1

Goal scored by team*
Clean sheet
Only 1 goal conceded

Bundesliga

Kaka

21,452

14,062

11,746

#1

R Firmino

Fernandinho

17,495

50
200
100

9,227

S Mane

19,249

16 MAR 2017

Players are awarded points for each match as follows :
1 point per minute played (up to a maximum of 90)
100 points for a win and 50 points for a draw**
200 points for scoring a goal
The following points are also awarded based on player position:

Back

Liverpool

18,866

100
100
50

29 MAY 2011

O Kahn

10,002

F Morientes

PSG

J Zanetti

Midfielder

C Ramelow

Liverpool

9,227

11 APR 2002

#2

Lionel Messi has spearheaded Barcelona’s most successful crop of Champions League players, as befits one of the game’s all-time greats. However the less-heralded contributions of the metronomic Xavi in midfield and Victor Valdes’ reliable pair of hands at the back cannot be understated.

Barcelona

#3

PSG

7 MAY 2009

12,737

12,492

M Salah

#4

M Salah

Maicon

* Up to a maximum of three
** If they feature for at least an hour
Points are doubled for the latter stages of the competition and are adjusted for previous formats proportional to the number of matches played.
The value of points reduces over time, reaching zero after five years.

T Muller

Serie A

Neymar may be the star of this PSG team but in the Champions League he has yet to match the cumulative achievements of his longer-serving team-mates since moving from Barcelona. Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani has been at Parc des Princes since 2013, ably shouldering the goalscoring workload and firing them into the knockout stages of the tournament without fail.